Mike Clarke Kyoshi Talks About Online Bullying in the Karate Community

Mike Clarke, Kyoshi on online bullying within the karate community:

Karate forums seem to be on the way out now, having been surpassed by the much faster Facebook and Twitter technology. Now, it’s possible to identify a target, and within moments have fellow pack members (friends) from all around the world, join in with the ridicule, sarcasm, and bile.

Tut….tut…karateka, if you want to be taken seriously, grow up!

Karate is meant to be about self-protection, and protecting those who need help. This sometimes mean standing up to bullies, and under no circumstances is it acceptable to participate in bullying. As a karateka. As a human!

Online tool such as Twitter (and even Facebook) can be a good way to communicate, share ideas and learn. Look any tool, it can be an aweful thing if used to hurt or bully others.

Ground Fighting and Bystanders…

A criticism often pointed at karate and other empty handed arts is that they don’t cover enough ground fighting. This has lead some to the conclusion that MMA is “better”.

Its perhaps a reasonable criticism, but ground fighting is also something that should be avoided, especially outside the ring (or cage), for the simple reason that when you’re on the ground, your vulnerable. Friends of the opponent, or sometimes bystanders, can throw in a cheap shot that you may be unaware of and/or unable to defend.

This video is doing the rounds on Youtube and Facebook, and illustrates this point precisely.

 

Book Review: How To Win a Fight by Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder

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Prolific martial authors Lawrence Kane & Kris Wilder (guest on Episode 3 of The Applied Karate Show podcast) have done it again, with a brand new book targeted to young people (actually young men) helping them to win in physical conflict.

How to Win a Fight: A Guide to Avoiding and Surviving Violence (aff.) is purposely written and illustrated with a tone and layout that the authors hope will get the message through to a large audience who needs to hear that fighting and violence is hardly romantic, is generally not “fair”, and rarely resolves the issue.

To get their message across, Kane and Wilder teamed up with veteran DC Comics artist/illustrator Matt Haley. The comic-book style imagery engages the mind and tells the story clearly and succinctly. With the popularity of comics in recent story telling (see TV shows like The Big Bang TheoryHeroes, and even NCIS for examples), I applaud this approach, and really enjoyed the parallel approach with the detailed written descriptions.

I like it that How to Win a Fight takes a pragmatic view of violence, detailing how most seemingly random violence is unnecessary and is for the most part avoidable. The authors describe the pre-incident indicators that lead up to violence, and describe how to recognise these and (critically) avoid them!

The book continues into detail into escape and evasion techniques, then describes the mental and physical techniques that are vital if the encounter is unavoidable. Unusual for a self-defence book, the authors then describe what to do after a fight, including aspects of first aid and the need for first aid training, dealing with the police and possible legal problems and the post-traumatic stress aspects.

How To Win A Fight is a terrific book that tells a sobering and realistic story of violence, and is one that all karate and martial arts enthusiasts who study the defensive aspects of the tradition should own. It’ll be on the reading list for my students at the Kengokan Dojo in Sydney, Australia. The message is important, and I love how Kane and Wilder have worked hard to get the message through to the group of people that most needs it.

Messrs Wilder and Kane teach Goju Karate at West Seattle Karate, and are the hosts of the always excellent Martial Secrets podcast.

Buy How to Win a Fight: A Guide to Avoiding and Surviving Violence (aff.) on Amazon.com now. On sale from 4 October 2011.